redpanda README

The project's README from github.com/redpanda-data/redpanda. As one markdown file: README.md.

Redpanda

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Redpanda is the most complete, Apache Kafka®-compatible streaming data platform, designed from the ground up to be lighter, faster, and simpler to operate. Free from ZooKeeper™ and JVMs, it prioritizes an end-to-end developer experience with a huge ecosystem of connectors, configurable tiered storage, and more.

Table of Contents

Get started

Prebuilt packages

Redpanda Data recommends using the following free, prebuilt stable releases.

Debian/Ubuntu

curl -1sLf \
  'https://linux.pkg.redpanda.com/setup-redpanda.deb.sh' \
  | sudo -E bash

sudo apt-get install redpanda

Fedora/RedHat/Amazon Linux

curl -1sLf \
  'https://linux.pkg.redpanda.com/setup-redpanda.rpm.sh' \
  | sudo -E bash

sudo yum install redpanda

macOS

Download the rpk binary here. Docker is required on MacOS.

brew install redpanda-data/tap/redpanda && rpk container start

Other Linux environments

To install from a .tar.gz archive, download the file and extract it into /opt/redpanda.

For amd64:

curl -LO https://vectorized-public.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/releases/redpanda/25.2.7/redpanda-25.2.7-amd64.tar.gz

For arm64:

curl -LO https://vectorized-public.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/releases/redpanda/25.2.7/redpanda-25.2.7-arm64.tar.gz

Replace 25.2.7 with the version you want to download. See Release Notes for available releases.

Build Manually

Redpanda Data uses Bazel as the build system. Bazel automatically manages most of the toolchains and third-party dependencies.

We rely on bazelisk to get the right version of bazel needed for the build. You can for example install it as follows and add it to your $PATH (or use one of the other suggested ways from their repo).

wget -O ~/bin/bazel https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazelisk/releases/latest/download/bazelisk-linux-amd64 && chmod +x ~/bin/bazel

There are a few system libraries and preinstalled tools our build assumes are available locally. To bootstrap and build redpanda along with all its tests.

sudo ./bazel/install-deps.sh
bazel build --config=release //...

For more build configurations, see .bazelrc.

Release candidate builds

Redpanda Data creates a release candidate (RC) build when we get close to a new release, and we publish it to make new features available for testing. RC builds are not recommended for production use.

RC releases on Debian/Ubuntu

curl -1sLf \
  'https://linux.pkg.redpanda.com/setup-redpanda-unstable.deb.sh' \
  | sudo -E bash

sudo apt-get install redpanda

RC releases on Fedora/RedHat/Amazon Linux

curl -1sLf \
  'https://linux.pkg.redpanda.com/setup-redpanda-unstable.rpm.sh' \
  | sudo -E bash

sudo yum install redpanda

RC releases on Docker

Example with v25.1.1-rc1:

docker pull docker.redpanda.com/redpandadata/redpanda-unstable:v25.1.1-rc1

Community

Resources

redpanda (redpanda-data/redpanda)

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12.6K ·GitHub
Redpanda
What is this?Redpanda is a streaming data platform that is wire-compatible with the Apache Kafka API but is built from the ground up in C++ to be lighter, faster, and simpler to operate.
Is this a drop-in replacement for a Kafka broker?Yes, you run it as a broker/server instead of Kafka: it speaks the Kafka API but has no ZooKeeper and no JVM, since it's written in C++ on the Seastar framework.
How do I install Redpanda?Use the prebuilt packages for Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora/RedHat/Amazon Linux, download a .tar.gz for other Linux distros, or get the rpk binary for macOS. You can also build it manually with Bazel.
Do I need Docker to run it on macOS?Yes, on macOS you only get the rpk CLI binary; Docker is required to actually run the Redpanda broker locally.
Are the release candidate builds safe to run in production?No, RC builds are published early for testing new features but are explicitly not recommended for production use.
What does ditching ZooKeeper and the JVM actually buy me?It removes two heavy operational dependencies that Kafka clusters normally need, which simplifies deployment and is part of why Redpanda claims to run up to 10x faster with a smaller footprint.
What is Seastar and why does it matter here?Seastar is the C++ async framework Redpanda is built on, which lets it bypass typical OS/JVM overhead and squeeze more throughput out of each core.
Does Redpanda support tiered storage?Yes, configurable tiered storage is listed as one of its built-in features alongside a large ecosystem of connectors.
Where do I ask questions about Redpanda?The project points to a community Slack for real-time chat and GitHub Discussions for longer, async conversations, with GitHub Issues reserved strictly for bugs.
What are similar projects?kafka, rocketmq, picomq, scylladb, CMAK, questdb, advanced-java, flink
Which topics is it in?bazel, storage-engine, stream-processing, zookeeper, message-queue, event-driven, kafka, realtime, big-data, containers, microservices, high-performance
Creator
redpanda-data
Size
164 MB
Stars
12.6K
Updated
CommitOct 08Releasev26.2.2Aug 22
Age
5y
Commits · 90 Days